As a leading member of the Fourth Estate in Canada, we are surprised that the Postmedia Network Inc. takes such a narrow and restrictive view of what “fair dealing” means under the Copyright Act.

It certainly was not our intent to infringe any Copyright that the Star may have in its materials nor have we done so.

With respect, it is our opinion that our activities fall squarely within the provisions of the “fair dealing” sections of the Copyright Act. Moreover, the Star has explicitly allowed us to “share” their materials with the public.

While we are certain that our disagreement would make an interesting legal case, frankly, we believe that both of us have better things to do than to set a legal precedent at this time as to what “fair dealing” means in the context of a Portal whose function is,

“regular political commentary and analysis of the happenings in and around Windsor and Essex County. The Square provides insightful news perspectives, in depth analysis, and solid background for people who want more than what traditional news sources provide”,

and the Star which is the dominant distributor of news and opinions in this region.

We do not understand how, on the one hand, you claim that you “respect” our right to critique the Star coverage yet, on the other hand, object to the “fair dealing” with Star materials.

In any event, and without prejudice to our legal rights to claim that we have not infringed any copyright and that our activities are “fair dealing,” Windsor Square and our contributors will remove any excerpts from the Star from articles that we have posted. Such action will result as well in the removal of Star materials from those articles if they are called up in future.

We can confirm to you that we will continue to comply with the terms and provisions of the Copyright Act.

In order to avoid any difficulties between us in the future, please provide us with the name(s) of individual(s) at your organization to whom our contributors may send requests for authorization and who can respond in a timely fashion considering our deadlines for posting articles.

15 Commentson "Post Media Network Inc."

The comments came back but I have been banned this afternoon. LOL. So I just sent copies of these comments to the the Stars canwest corporate offices and added a few sentences of my own. Coleman is out of town so I presume Eddie will be at a loss till Sept. 20th. Karen Hall is handling his emails. We have to get the Windsor Square readership tripled so the truth will be shared. So many do not know what is going on anymore.
Does anyone have ideas to spread this medium. I have it all over my facebook but that’s not enough. The Windsor star has to be held to task. There reporting is hap hazard for the sake of room and time.

It is pretty pathetic that the square has intimidated the “Windsor Star” boy oh boy you have got them scared/rattled eh? Goes to show you that the Windsor square is a lot smarter than anyone at the Star.

Good…Obviously you’ve rattled their cage and made them stand up and take notice. I long ago canceled my subscription.

I will be asking my union (Catholic Teachers) to suggest our members not take part in the “Newspapers in the Classroom” and Canwest Spelling events as these are only marketing tools for a corporation that is the furthest thing possible from an example of impartiality, fairness and journalistic integrity.

So they don’t want you to copy and paste their articles directly. Big deal. There is nothing to stop you from critiquing their content. You can simply paraphrase and directly quote their columnists. Also, when some erroneous information is published call the writer or news director and tell him you are doing a story on it and ask for his/her side before you go to press with your story. If you quote and attribute I do not see any violation of copyright. Particularly if you give them a chance to respond.
Great job of holding their feet to the fire. Don’t back down now! Get creative.

P.S
Another approach that you should consider in tandem, would be to get more writers and develop more of your own content. Hire some interns from Van D’s wife’s course at the college to cover courts and city hall etc. In the electronic age you needn’t provide office space or anything. Simply offer some writers at the college and the U of W an opportunity to spend time doing hard news.

Why can’t your critique their comment, Chris? If I were you, I’d get a legal opinion on this. The Star is supposed to be a NEWS paper. I’m sure there’s some legal precident in all of this. As far as their response, I’m sure they’re not going to point out any options to you. I want to congratulate you for getting under their skin. Good work.:)

So it sounds like it becomes a game, .So ,should they decide to respond ,then at that time you would be able to have a ‘point of view’ on what is published for all to read ? I hope people take notice of this ploy. We shall see how this works shortly then .

‘ However, under its “fair dealing” provisions, the Copyright Act does allow individuals or organizations to use original works without such use being considered an infringement: criticism and review, news reporting, and private study or research (section 29). The Act also exempts certain categories of users, such as non-profit educational institutions (section 29.4).

The law of copyright also applies to the Internet, and so most individual works found there are protected: using Internet text or graphics without the permission of the copyright holder, for instance, is an infringement of copyright law. ‘

So what does this mean for Windsor for sharing of freedom of information ? So ‘the star’ has resorted to control versus proper reporting of the issues. And what body overseas their poor journalism practices?

So what is the square’s intent for future reporting ? When misinformation is reported it needs to be pointed out. Unlike our US friends,the resources to get the ‘NEWS’ to the people is limited,s omething I’m sure they are counting on.

We have some people in this town that really show how low we can go ,don’t we.

As of yesterday, they are now allowing comments on only certain stories. This is actually worse than a total ban of comments. Myself, as well as several other bloggers are now banned from commenting on any Star stories. Gee, I’m hurt.:)

My, my. Aren’t they touchy? Funny, they are no longer allowing comments on any of their articles on the Star forum. I guess Eddie and VanderD aren’t happy with the bad posts they are receiving lately.:)